Today is my favourite day of the year! That is because today is the shortest day off the year and from this moment on the nights grow shorter and the days grow longer. How good is that! Quite how folks cope in those parts of Scandinavia that suffer six months of darkness I do not really understand. Depression and alcohol abuse is widely reported, and no wonder! It is bad enough wandering about wearing a hat with horns sticking out of it (something the Vikings never did) but to do this in the dark must be wearing I'd say. The six months of never ending daylight would be a wow however and must make for a more tranquil mind. Yeah, okay it didn't do much for the Vikings but they were worried about being unable to plant crops in their hard ground and that sort of thing upsets a farmer doesn't it? Just imagine it, sunlight all day and everyday! Wonderful! This would lighten the mind, remove depressions and enable even the worst farmer to dig his cabbages out of the ground!
Time and Date explain in simple terms, which my readers require, why the solstice occurs. The tilting of the earth, the sun moving around to annoy us, especially me, and such like. Very interesting indeed. Naturally many of the trendies will be hanging around places like Stonehenge, if the snow allows them through, to pretend they care about this. Large groups of ageing hippy's (or is that hippies?), gray haired middle class women desperate to fill the empty gap in their life, 'Guardian' readers believing they are holding back global warming and making a real impact on the earth will be everywhere wasting their time at dawn this morning gathering mistletoe with golden scythes and murmuring prayers to the pagan gods and suffering frostbite for their pains.
It says something about the human condition that we seek solace in that which is beyond us, something greater than 'Sickly Come Dancing,' or another of Simon Cowell's money making schemes (no jealousy here!). Events around us like earthquakes and eclipses would worry men of old, but with today's supposedly educated people we still find ourselves asking questions. Some use them for their esoteric purposes (I used to know 'eric' quite well) and others take a more sanguine approach, "Pass the brandy luv." Only the existence of God can answer such questions, but even at Christmas folks look in the wrong place. Whatever I, unlike my niece, who is well old enough to know better, I did not rise at dawn to watch the red eclipse this morning, oh no. I remained lost in my dream world under the somewhat ageing army ex-blankets as per usual. It is the days I like not nights, sunshine, blue skies and warmth. When I win the lottery that is what I will acquire, by moving to Cyprus or Malta or some such place. I doubt they suffer much from dark nights.
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